The Rantings of a Depressed Feminist (Yikes!)

Have you ever had a day that was so horrible that the extent to which it sucked was astounding? How did you deal? Did you stuff your face with junk food and drown your sorrows in the latest episode of Grey’s Anatomy? Or did you call your friends and bitch to them about your issues? Well readers (aka my parents), this past Friday I experienced the crappiest day of my life and indulged in all the things listed above. I won’t go into the details of what caused the mental breakdown (and lack of good sense regarding the limit of cream puff intake), but suffice to say there were tears, Tiramisu, and tweed. Lots of tweed- specifically of the Chanel kind. That’s right folks- when I get bummed I do some serious window shopping. However, instead of scouring gap.com for five dollar t-shirts, I decided that a good ol’ fashion movie was in order (Key words being fashion and movie). So, chocolate in hand I made my way over to the Michigan Theater to catch a screening of “Coco before Chanel.” I went in thinking the gorgeous dresses and presumably inspirational story about a French woman creating a fashion empire would cheer me up. As usual, I was completely wrong.

I left the theater completely underwhelmed and slightly more irritated than when I had entered. Save for the gorgeous shots of the French countryside and early twentieth century French fashion, the plot lacked a consistent driving force. The film spent much of its run time of 110 minutes building up to a climactic moment that happened far too quickly for anyone to notice. It seemed as if one moment Coco was a poor orphan girl singing in sleazy bars, while the next moment she was showcasing her world famous fashions to Parisian elite. Where was the struggle? Where was the triumph? However, the lack of a steady plot wasn’t the only thing that made this movie frustrating to watch- the entire movie was painfully SLOW. So slow in fact, that at several points during the movie my friend opened up her bag, picked up her cell phone, and began surfing the internet. Just FYI to the directors, producers, etc. of feature films- it’s never a good sign when people are texting while watching your movie and contemplating how much longer this “torture session” will last.

However, if we take away all the superficial aspects of film presentation, there is a deeper, more fundamental problem with the movie “Coco before Chanel.” It was essentially a love story. Call me a pessimist, feminist, or ludicrous, but I couldn’t help but to agree with my friend when she mentioned that the entire film was basically an ode to men- specifically the men in Coco’s life. Through most of the movie, she is seen chasing after men in order to get by. In fact, it isn’t after she meets her boyfriend (more specifically the love of her life) that her career begins. It is also interesting to note that even though she does eventually succeed in her endeavors, the movie ends on a rather depressing note. The first line of the ending narration is that “Coco never married.” Is that what’s really important?! Is the institution of marriage more important than describing the maverick and visionary that Coco was?

Maybe you think I’m overreacting. Maybe I am. Maybe I am just a crazy feminazi who is overly sensitive to cultural images and stressed out from my orgo exam. Or maybe this movie is crap and perpetuates the patriarchal institutions within our society. Take an evening out of your day (hopefully not a crappy one) and see it- let me know what you think 🙂